Official Overview

You play an Uplink Agent who makes a living by performing jobs for major corporations. Your tasks involve hacking into rival computer systems, stealing research data, sabotaging other companies, laundering money, erasing evidence, or framing innocent people.

You use the money you earn to upgrade your computer systems and to buy new software and tools. As your experience level increases, more dangerous and profitable missions become available. You can speculate on a fully working stock market (and even influence its outcome). You can modify people’s academic or criminal records. You can divert money from bank transfers into your own accounts. You can even take part in the construction of the most deadly computer virus ever designed--or lead the fight against it!

Release Information

The original game, patched to version 1.6 (identical to 1.55, but with the copy protection removed). This release of Uplink contains the Windows version and the Mac version, although the original source code is included.

Extras

Wallpaper

Developer Interview

Avatar

Bonus CD

Developer CD w/ Source Code

Soundtrack

Uplink soundtrack - Duel Crew Symphonic.mp3

Uplink soundtrack - Dustbin Pink Noise [Bonus Track].mp3

Uplink soundtrack - Hector Clouds Of Fire [Bonus Track].mp3

Uplink soundtrack - Karsten Koch The Blue Valley.mp3

Uplink soundtrack - Ryan Cramer Digital Serenity.mp3

Uplink soundtrack - Skaven Deep In Her Eyes.mp3

Uplink soundtrack - Timelord Mystique (Part I).mp3

Uplink soundtrack - Timelord Mystique (Part II).mp3

Uplink soundtrack - Timelord Mystique (Part III) [Bonus Track].mp3

soundtrack_Uplink.jpg

Patches and Modifications

Official Patches

Unofficial Patches

Modifications

Known issues

Unofficial Compatibility

Linux

Uplink can be played via Wine. The original source code is included and it is thus theoretically possible to compile and run the game on modern operating systems. However, some of the included dependencies are very old (gltt, for example, is discontinued as of 2004) and some will not compile on 64bit systems. Without modifications to the source code, it is more or less useless on modern systems.

However, we can still utilize the game datafiles provided in the GOG installer with the official Linux version.

Remember that while you have access to the code, Uplink is not open source. The developer CD normally costs $30 to purchase and Introversion Software remain the proprietors of the code. If you make any changes and wish to share them, check with Introversion first! (support@introversion.co.uk)

Arch

An AUR Package for Uplink 1.55 exists for Arch. It is possible to use this to install Uplink. The package mentions that you will need uplink.zip from the original CD and of course, we don't have the original CD, so we'll have to create uplink.zip from the datafiles included with the GOG version.

Run makepkg once to grab the patch and binary. It will fail on uplink.zip.

So now we need to create uplink.zip. Run the GOG installer of Uplink through Wine (or use a fancy inno extractor!). You're gonna want some - but not all - of the .dat files. So, navigate to wherever you installed Uplink (or extracted the files to). In my case this was my default WINPREFIX:

$ cd /home/joe/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/GOG.com/Uplink/

And zip up the following .dat files.

$ zip uplink.zip {data,fonts,graphics,loading,music,world}.dat

Move it to wherever your PKGBUILD is, and go to that directory

$ mv uplink.zip /home/joe/uplink/
$ cd /home/joe/uplink

Now run makepkg -g and amend the md5sums=() in the PKGBUILD and run makepkg once again. It'll take a couple of minutes but eventually you'll have an Uplink package. Install it.

# pacman -U uplink-1.55-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

The package contains a .desktop file so your XDG compliant Games menu should have a link to launch Uplink.

Unfortunately, the copy protection is present in this version. That doesn't stop you from playing, however! Check /usr/share/doc/uplink/codecard.pdf for the grid code you need to get past the agent creation screen. You should only have to do this once.

There you have it; Uplink is now installed on your Arch system. Run uplink to play it or check your Games menu.

GOG Trivia

Uplink is the first game to be released on GOG with its own source code included.